Liberty of the Seas Review -3/10/14 sailing

[AtlFamilyof4]

just got off a 5 night with 2 kids and here's a quick review that I thought might be helpful:

 

Boarding: we had someone drop us off around 10:50 and we were on the boat around 12:15 or so. Part of that was my fault because I had packed the snack bag we had traveled with and I had fruit in it and I had also brought a knife to cut it with (while we were traveling in the car for 10 hrs). I completely forgot I had it in my bag, so that was detected and taken, which of course, I was ok with and very apologetic.

 

When we went through security and was directed into a line to get our seapass cards, we were directed to the diamond/diamond plus line after the lady looked at our boarding pass and we are only gold.. it was a MUCH shorter line than the other line... so I wasn't complaining ;)

 

First day/night: this was the kids' first cruise and they were not used to the abundance of food and eating a lot at each meal (including dessert at lunch and dinner). I didn't realize how much they were eating til my son threw up everywhere in the pullman bed that night. A cabin steward came in and replaced all bedding AND the mattress! I kept apologizing to him and he was very nice about it. I worried about it being seasickness or something worse, but he was fine the rest of the cruise.

 

We were able to go to the Adventure Ocean open house and register early (began at 1:00 pm) instead of waiting til 4:00 when the registration opened.

 

Other Days: We played Bingo (and won $500!), shopped, went to the variety show (which my son ended up being a part of), the adult game show (which was awful because we had a lot of college spring break kids on the cruise and they were the ones participating), karaoke (which was awful for the same reason), gambled, watched Frozen from the hot tub (which my daughter LOVED!), went to the ice show, played putt putt. We did not go to the saturday night fever show - we just weren't interested in it.

The casino, especially craps table, was constantly crowded with college kids and loud. I was fine with it since I don't play craps, but the casino and adult shows were where we mostly saw all the college kids. Surprisingly there weren't that many younger kids on the boat.

We went to a character breakfast the first morning, and I would say we could skip that next time (they had it again with different characters the last sea day). It wasn't that my kids disliked it, but since there were other photo opportunities on the boat with Shrek, etc., I feel like we could have skipped it.

 

Adventure Ocean: My kids LOVED Adventure Ocean! My son was begging to go back every time they were open, which totally surprised me. They always had things for them to do including pirate parade, games, movies, making crafts, painting, etc. We didn't utilize the in-room babysitting, but we did use the late night party zone (which is from 10:00 pm - 2:00 am and is $7/hr/child). The great thing is they charge for 1/2 hours, so some times we were only charged $3.50. Little tidbit.

 

Last Day: Our time slot to get off the boat was 9:45-10:00 and it was closer to 10:00 when we were actually called. We were picked up and leaving by 11:00.

 

Room: We were on the 7th deck in front of boat and right off the elevator. I thought we would hear elevator dings all the time, but I never heard it once. It was a very good location for that reason.

I took the advice of other posters here and took an over-the-door shoe organizer to put all the extras in and keep off the counters. I could have probably done without it only because it mostly kept my "in case of" stuff (meds, ponchos, bags, etc.) I could have in hindsight just left them in the suitcase under the bed. I did make a point though to keep our room pretty organized and picked up, so I never really saw a mess or the need to have that extra space. I also took extra hangers for the whole family, but the only extras I used were for the kids (the kid size ones). Of course, they don't have those in the closet, but I am so glad I took those.

 

Other: My husband got the select premium beverage package ($200/week) and it was worth it. He was under the daily average on some days and then over on others, so it worked out in the end that we would have spent more without having the package.

 

I'm sure I have forgotten a lot of things, but this is what I remember off the top of my head. So any questions, ask away!

Edited March 17, 2014 by AtlFamilyof4

[Topo Gigio]

LoL, thats a radiance Class ship in the pic.

[Poorplaya]

Nice review, thx for sharing, love the idea for the shoe organizer, definitely stealing that one!!!!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Cruise Critic Forums mobile app

[jc24cruiser]

Lovely review, found it very useful as I am taking my kids on their first cruise in October :) Especially great to see how you found Adventure Ocean, not planning on using it much as un-fortunately due to working full time I don't see much of them, but I know that they will enjoy Adventure Ocean if we are planning on doing something "boring" x

[AtlFamilyof4]

LoL, thats a radiance Class ship in the pic.

 

ha! I didn't even notice..

[AtlFamilyof4]

Nice review, thx for sharing, love the idea for the shoe organizer, definitely stealing that one!!!!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Cruise Critic Forums mobile app

 

I loved the idea too! I hung it over the outside of the bathroom door.

another thing I did was in the closet. My daughter has a hanging shoe organizer that I took to put the kids shoes, socks, underwear, belts, our socks & belts in. it was very easy and took up very little space. I attached both pictures.

Edited March 17, 2014 by AtlFamilyof4
pictures didn't attach

[ExilePA]

If you don't mind me asking, what ages are your children? Just trying to gauge whether Adventure Ocean will keep my kids attention. Also, with 4 cruisers, what size room did you have?

[AtlFamilyof4]

If you don't mind me asking, what ages are your children? Just trying to gauge whether Adventure Ocean will keep my kids attention. Also, with 4 cruisers, what size room did you have?

 

I have a 3 yr old girl and 7 yr old boy.

We had a deluxe oceanview that had a balcony. We opted for the two twins to be pushed together and our daughter slept with us and my son on the Pullman above the bed. The space was good for us.

[ExilePA]

Thanks for the quick reply! We've booked a junior suite and it looks like those don't have a pullman bed. Might have to look into either the category you booked or seeing if we can get a rollaway bed.

[AtlFamilyof4]

Thanks for the quick reply! We've booked a junior suite and it looks like those don't have a pullman bed. Might have to look into either the category you booked or seeing if we can get a rollaway bed.

 

Does yours have the pullout sofa? And what ages are your children? I don't think I saw you mention that. If one is little, maybe you can do what we did and he/she can sleep with you (that bed is pretty big when put together) and then the older one can sleep on the pullout. I do like the pullman better for the reason of more floor space since we didn't have a pullout sofa to use, but your junior suite is over 100 sq. feet more than what our balcony room was (297 vs. 184), so I think you will have plenty of space if you can use the pullout, unless you just want a pullman...

[LBumb]

nice job

[jwick]

Thanks for the review! I'm considering a May sailing on this ship and am trying to learn more about it. I've only sailed on the Explorer in the past.

 

If you don't mind answering a question.....

 

Have the cabins been updated at all since the latest updates were made to the ship? I'm especially curious about the carpeting/bathrooms.

 

On the Explorer (most recently in May 2013), I found that the carpeting and bathrooms were looking really run down and dated.

 

Thanks so much!

[AtlFamilyof4]

I can't say anything about the ship since the last cruise I went on before this one was in 2007. But when we were on this last one, I didn't notice anything dingy or dirty about the bathrooms or carpet. sorry I couldn't be more help.

[jwick]

Thanks so much for replying! :)